Origin of ornament.—It is probable that before pottery came into use the decorative art had been cultivated in other fields, and we shall need to look both to nature and to antecedent arts for the originals of many decorative ideas.
From a remote period man has been able to appreciate beauty. The first exercise of taste would probably be in the direction of personal adornment, and would consist in the choice of colors or articles thought to enhance attractiveness, or in the grouping and modification of objects at first functional in character. Later, taste would be exercised on a variety of subjects, and finally it would extend to all things in use. Man may have recognized the comeliness of the first simple articles employed in his humble arts, but when he came to attempt the multiplication of these articles artificially, utility was probably the only thought. In reproducing them, however, non-essential features would be copied automatically, and the work of art would through this accident inherit purely ornamental attributes.
Thus it appears that the first ideas of decoration do not necessarily originate in the mind of the potter, but that, like the shapes of art products, they may be derived, unconsciously, from nature. This is an important consideration. At a later stage new forms of ornament are derived in a like manner from constructional features of the various arts. Invention of decorative motives is not to be expected of a primitive, tradition-following people. Advance is greatly by utilization of accidents.
Use.—A satisfactory classification of this pottery by functional characters will be most difficult to make. In the early stages of its manufacture it was confined chiefly, if not solely, to the alimentary arts. A differentiation of use would take place when certain vessels were set aside for special departments of the domestic work. Thus we would have vessels for eating, for cooking, for carrying, and for storage. When vessels came to be used in superstitious exercises, certain forms were probably set aside for especial ceremonies. With some peoples, particular forms were dedicated to mortuary uses, but we have no clew to any such custom among the ancient Pueblos, as the same vessel served for food both before and after death, and cinerary vessels were not called for. Certain classes of the ruder and plainer ware are found to be blackened by smoke. These were evidently cooking vessels. The painted pottery rarely shows evidences of such use. Bowls were probably employed chiefly in preparing and serving food. The larger vessels were devoted to carrying and storing water, fruits, grains, and miscellaneous articles. Smaller vessels were used as receptacles for paint, grease, and the like. The ancient people had not yet devoted their ceramic art to trivial uses—there are no toys, no rattles, and no grotesque figures.
Classification.—In treating a subject covering so wide a field, and embracing such a diversity of products, a careful classification of the material is called for. Three grand divisions of the ceramic work of this province may be made on a time basis, namely: prehistoric, transitional, and modern. At present I have to deal chiefly with the prehistoric, but must also pay some attention to the transitional, as it embraces many features common both to the archaic and to the modern art. In discussing the prehistoric pottery I find it convenient to consider it under the three heads, coiled ware, plain ware, and painted ware. This classification is unsatisfactory, as it is based upon somewhat imperfectly differentiated characters. The smooth vessel is in many cases a coil-built one with obliterated coils, and a painted vessel a smooth one with the addition of designs in color. Very little of the pottery was left plain, but the coiled and painted varieties are fully represented in every locality.
I place the coiled ware first because to all appearances it is the most archaic variety and one which is rarely made at the present day. I suspect that the pieces made by modern potters serve to supply the wants of the collectors rather than to meet the requirements of traditional art. Among the collections in the National Museum are found many crude attempts to manufacture this ware by potters who did not comprehend the secrets of its construction, or who thought to produce the coiled effect by the cheap device of scarifying and indenting the surface of a plain vessel.
Close relations are established between the coiled and the painted pottery, not only by the identity of materials, form, color, and time, but by the union of the two methods of finishing, the coiling and painting, in one and the same vessel, as may be seen in the examples given in in the following pages.
COIL-MADE WARE.
Coiling.—The art of building vessels by means of coils of clay has been practiced by many widely separated communities, and is, therefore, certainly not peculiar to the ancient Pueblos. A careful study of the ceramic field shows considerable diversity in the treatment of the coil. The most striking variation, the employment of the coil as a means of embellishment, is, so far as my observation extends, peculiar to the Pueblo peoples. With others it is a feature of construction simply.
The preliminary steps are with all primitive potters in a general sense the same. The first care is to secure suitable clay and to have it properly purified and tempered. After this the treatment varies greatly.